Daily News Stuff 10 September 2026

Top Story

Google is investing $13 billion over two years to construct datacenters in Finland. (Notebook Check)

Cheap electricity and free cooling. It's as if Canada hadn't fallen to the commies.

Tech News

That unaccomplished feeling you get when all you've done today is build a working C cross-compiler and half a package manager. And your day job...
This 4TB Crucial T705 SSD is just $500 - which is basically the same price as last year. (Tom's Hardware)

I have the T710 but the T705 is fine too.
Framework has cut prices in the 32GB and 64GB models of the new Laptop 13 Pro. (Tom's Hardware)

Though this comes after increasing prices sharply a couple of months ago. Things aren't getting better, they're just getting worse more slowly.
Automattic's board of directors has staged a coup. (Tech Crunch)

Mad King Matt Mullenweg has been exiled to Kyril Island.
Suddenly I feel much better about humanity's chances of survival. (Twitter)

If this overblown idiot thinks we're doomed, we might not be.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Ping.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 04:35 AM (odBC9)

2 Ping?

Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 04:36 AM (rdVOm)

3 Boing. Boom Tchak!

Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 04:37 AM (rdVOm)

4 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at September 10, 2026 04:41 AM (sAmhv)

5 G'Day everyone
Hitting the long road

Posted by: Skip at September 10, 2026 04:47 AM (Ia/+0)

6 One last burst of het and humidity.

Posted by: Accomack at September 10, 2026 04:51 AM (Jc/3E)

7 Guten morgen, horde.

Posted by: clarence at September 10, 2026 04:55 AM (311fa)

8 Read the content (all of it). Still top 10.

G'morning Horde.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at September 10, 2026 04:58 AM (O7YUW)

9 Google is investing $13 billion over two years to construct datacenters in Finland. (Notebook Check)

https://archive.is/iJR1n

(archived)

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 04:59 AM (odBC9)

10 Last survivor of 9/11 pulled out of the rubble got a second chance and renews relationship with God. Faithpot site:

https://tinyurl.com/5cfy2mdc

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 05:00 AM (W90Ou)

11 Through out all the media and political bull sh-t storm surrounding tomorrow, please remember that every one of the perpetrators was a visa overstay. They were here illegally.

If, in 2000 and 2001, we had enforced the immigration laws with the same zeal as we enforced the drug laws, tomorrow would be just another day on the calendar.

Who is John Galt ?

Posted by: Going deep. Out. at September 10, 2026 05:03 AM (x69Nb)

12 JQ, what is this language you are speaking?

2 Ping?
Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 04:36 AM (rdVOm)

3 Boing. Boom Tchak!
Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 04:37 AM (rdVOm)

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:03 AM (odBC9)

13 Off duty NYPD officer saves unconscious person behind the wheel and averts an accident. Sunny Skyz site:

https://tinyurl.com/2c2y4j53

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 05:06 AM (W90Ou)

14 Suddenly I feel much better about humanity's chances of survival. (Twitter)
If this overblown idiot thinks we're doomed, we might not be.

But how can we know?

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:07 AM (odBC9)

15 JQ, what is this language you are speaking?

Heh. I spelled it wrong, maybe--

youtu.be/dWvNYDA0hkU

Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 05:08 AM (rdVOm)

16 "Mad King Matt Mullenweg has been exiled to Kyril Island."

While he's there, maybe he can help with that little cleanup problem they have.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at September 10, 2026 05:09 AM (O7YUW)

17
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at September 10, 2026 05:10 AM (AMvSw)

18 Belated BOING!

Busy. Maybe l8r.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 10, 2026 05:11 AM (D0X9e)

19 15 JQ, what is this language you are speaking?

Heh. I spelled it wrong, maybe--

youtu.be/dWvNYDA0hkU
Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 05:08 AM (rdVOm)

Aagghh, my eyes!

Kraftwerk Boing Bumm Tschak

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:12 AM (odBC9)

20 18 Belated BOING!

Busy. Maybe l8r.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 10, 2026 05:11 AM (D0X9e)

JQ already boinged.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:12 AM (odBC9)

21 JQ already boinged.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:12 AM (odBC9)
-

Make Boinging Great Again.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 10, 2026 05:15 AM (D0X9e)

22 BOING!!!

Doing what I can, boss.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:15 AM (odBC9)

23 I am thankful to the Lord that after almost two weeks of living out of coolers for groceries a new fridge was delivered. Yesterday The guys delivering it looked like Mutt and Jeff. One was about a 6'4 guy and the other one was about 5'4. They were Latino. I wish Americans did these jobs, but they were quite efficient and I would like to think that if they're delivering appliances all day they're probably not working for a drug cartel . It does make me laugh when delivery people call me "Miss" . It makes me feel much younger.😉

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 05:18 AM (W90Ou)

24 I'm a boinger!

youtu.be/Ve0MPWQrG2g

Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 05:18 AM (rdVOm)

25 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at September 10, 2026 05:19 AM (Hbeqj)

26 14 Suddenly I feel much better about humanity's chances of survival. (Twitter)
If this overblown idiot thinks we're doomed, we might not be.

But how can we know?
Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:07 AM (odBC9)

I mean, from his 𝕏 account, his credentials aren't stellar:

Jacob Coxon
@hilbertspaess
ai research
sf
Joined January 2026
Tweets
10
Following
13
Followers
218,227
Likes
4

But does that mean he's wrong?

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:20 AM (odBC9)

27 Have a great day, horde-- I'm out. ZZZzzzzzzz....

Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 05:21 AM (rdVOm)

28 @21/Biden's Dog: "Make Boinging Great Again."

https://youtu.be/4aTagDSnclk?t=25

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at September 10, 2026 05:21 AM (O7YUW)

29 But does that mean he's wrong?

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:20 AM (odBC9)
-

Here's a hint: Start up a new Doomsday Clock.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 10, 2026 05:21 AM (D0X9e)

30 24 I'm a boinger!

youtu.be/Ve0MPWQrG2g
Posted by: JQ at September 10, 2026 05:18 AM (rdVOm)

Haha! Who knew.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:22 AM (odBC9)

31 Parrots dance to Dolly Parton song "Jolene"

https://tinyurl.com/2fe4fpau

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 05:26 AM (xPsv8)

32 I'm not worried about AI becoming skynet. I see a big problem with letting code affect code. Letting hallucination loose on the interconnected world is not an improvement.

Posted by: clarence at September 10, 2026 05:26 AM (311fa)

33 28 @21/Biden's Dog: "Make Boinging Great Again."

https://youtu.be/4aTagDSnclk?t=25
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at September 10, 2026 05:21 AM (O7YUW)

I love that so much.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:27 AM (odBC9)

34 ack

Posted by: Viridian at September 10, 2026 05:29 AM (KJHbI)

35 29 But does that mean he's wrong?

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:20 AM (odBC9)
-

Here's a hint: Start up a new Doomsday Clock.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 10, 2026 05:21 AM (D0X9e)

And:

The Sky is Falling

But those are labels. How do you know that you have applied the correct label?

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:31 AM (odBC9)

36 Evening and morning, satellites and satraps of the vast AoSHQ Empire! All hail Pixy, all hail Ace!

Yesterday wa a busy day. Fasting blood draw, breakfast at a local diner, grocery run, then the library book club meeting in the evening. We capped the day with a visit to the Haagen-Dasz ice cream parlor. Their Coffee Chip is good stuff.

So what's been happening?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 05:35 AM (wzUl9)

37 I read here yesterday that James Talarico said that he enjoys some Muslim mystic . Why do I have a feeling that he has not read Brother Lawrence a 17th century French lay brother who has a wonderful collection of writings,, "The practice of the presence of God"?Here is a little prayer from
It:

A constant prayer:

" My God, here I am, my heart devoted to you. Fashion me according to your heart."

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 05:39 AM (xSAlF)

38 And a hymn that is often thought of as Thanksgiving hymn but can be sung anytime . "Now thank we all our God": This fellow does a nice version:

https://tinyurl.com/57npvs3x

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 05:46 AM (xSAlF)

39 Second cup of coffee. Amazing how we come to depend on the stuff, and on routine. Normally I have some black juice first thing whether I'm going to work out or not. Yesterday, all I drank as part of my fast was water. When I finally got to the diner and slurped my first coffee, I'd been awake and moving for three hours and was functioning well. But the diner juice in their thick white mug was darn good.

I've got a haircut and a feeding of the big car on the schedule today. The station with E0 near the barber may still have the non-ethanol stuff at the same price as a week ago; I want to grab it before its price rises too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 05:48 AM (wzUl9)

40 I hear thunder, and there is a 60% chance of rain from now until about 10 am. Not that it will really cool things, but it's good to have any amount of rain. ("Any amount" up to the point of flooded streets, that is.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 05:50 AM (wzUl9)

41 Please pray for complete healing for the husband of Tecumseh Tea , a lovely poster here. Mr Tea is having 4th stage cancer treatments . Pray for Mrs. Tea and their entire family as well. Thx.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 05:50 AM (xSAlF)

42 And:

The Sky is Falling

But those are labels. How do you know that you have applied the correct label?

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 05:31 AM (odBC9)
-

Stick around and find out.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 10, 2026 05:53 AM (D0X9e)

43 And the furry thugs are well. Big Stirling continues on his (to him) starvation regimen. I need to weigh him today to find out how the diet is working, or not.

Little Dagny was on the bed with me when I woke up.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 05:53 AM (wzUl9)

44 I'm glad that the furry things are well, Wolfus. I will be glad when my friend returns and I don't have to look after her cats as well too . The fattest cat over there needs to be put on a reducing diet, but he is a sweet and friendly ( big) boy. On Tuesday I had to feed seven fixed cats in a cat colony, my friend's three cats and my own . All this bending down to clean and full food bowls did not help my back. There was however a beautiful last bit of rose bush at the cat colony and it smelled lovely.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 06:01 AM (xSAlF)

45
Good morning, Hordians. Up, self weighed, dressed, morning prayers said, dogs taken care of. Now sitting in the Command Center at Schloss Hadrian recording Bruckner's Symphony No. 5, as conducted by Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 10, 2026 06:02 AM (eRlcH)

46 Can't sleep and court hearing in 6 hours. Remote though. Too effing hot.

Posted by: Dark Lix at September 10, 2026 06:03 AM (Fv808)

47 Why did the chicken cross the road?

She was cucking the rooster in her hen house.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at September 10, 2026 06:05 AM (ZLLWT)

48 So Winnie had her vet appointment yesterday. The main focus was checking her heart and doing a chest x-ray to make sure that she could handle being under anesthesia for a dental cleaning.

The vet was annoyed because she was the one who had diagnosed the heart murmur and now she couldn't find it. A quick blood draw was done and then they had to clean out her right ear because it was filled. The Greyhound Scream of Death was heard that day.

In the end, she got a lot of cookies, everyone said how wonderful she was and she was resting happily shortly after getting home.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:05 AM (99eI0)

49 I've had 3 cats, each former outdoors cats (1 feral). None of them overate and all had food access whenever they wanted. I got lucky.

Posted by: Dark Lix at September 10, 2026 06:06 AM (Fv808)

50 " [...] and half a package manager"

You could use Slackware's. No inherent dependency management, however. Easy enough to add it since you can add whatever header you want in the repo metadata.

Posted by: Richard Cranium at September 10, 2026 06:06 AM (IarJD)

51 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 05:35 AM (wzUl9

And what is the book group reading?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 06:06 AM (xSAlF)

52
The vet was annoyed because she was the one who had diagnosed the heart murmur and now she couldn't find it.

Dutch (The Beeg Boy) had his heart examined by auscultation at the BCOA National. One vet said there was a murmur and one said they couldn't hear anything. A third vet was brought in and said they couldn't tell.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 10, 2026 06:08 AM (eRlcH)

53 Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026

I'm glad she's ok and everybody made a fuss over her "The Greyhound scream of death" sounds scary. I have to bring kitten to vet today.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 06:10 AM (xPsv8)

54 48 A quick blood draw was done and then they had to clean out her right ear because it was filled. The Greyhound Scream of Death was heard that day.
Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:05 AM (99eI0)

Good Winnie! Good girl!

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 06:10 AM (odBC9)

55 What do you call a magic dog?

A labracadabrador.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 06:13 AM (xPsv8)

56 And what is the book group reading?
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026

***
This month it was Westerns. Linda spoke about a Mickey Spillane/Max Allan Collins novel, Hot Lead, Cold Justice, which she thought had an unsatisfying ending. I spoke about Outlawed, the "feminist" Western I mentioned on the Book Thread this last week. Anna North's novel really isn't "feminist" in the sense of the strident screeching we hear and read so often. Most books labeled as such are short on story and long on "messaging." Not this one.

As a plus, the author's West is an alternate one: In the 1830s, a Great Flu wiped out 90% of America from Boston to California. The surviving society became all about fertility (logically), to the point that a "barren" woman is often accused of being a witch. The background shapes the story, as a good SF tale should.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:16 AM (wzUl9)

57 The Algorithm is sending me "true crime" kind of videos, where neighbors notice that children are living in squalor and call the cops. I watched one and now I'm wondering: how do the video-makers have access to police interrogations of these kids' parents? Yikes.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 06:16 AM (odBC9)

58
The Greyhound Scream of Death was heard that day.

And yet if there was something really, really wrong, she'd never make a sound.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 10, 2026 06:18 AM (eRlcH)

59 Dutch (The Beeg Boy) had his heart examined by auscultation at the BCOA National. One vet said there was a murmur and one said they couldn't hear anything. A third vet was brought in and said they couldn't tell.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 10, 2026

***
Both Wolf the big black cat and Chekov D. Siberian had faint murmurs. Chekov lived to be fourteen and his heart held up fine, and Wolf probably passed of kidney failure at about eleven or twelve. Their hearts were never an issue.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:18 AM (wzUl9)

60 wel.
huh.
g'mornin' then, allayouse!

yay Friday eve?

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at September 10, 2026 06:19 AM (VyBeY)

61 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:16 AM (wzUl9)

I am not familiar with Anna North. Sounds like an entertaining writer. I have never read a feminist novel ( described as such). It sounds like you enjoy the book group and are a asset in the discussions.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 06:22 AM (rHgXV)

62 The Greyhound Scream of Death was heard that day.

And yet if there was something really, really wrong, she'd never make a sound.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

I was about to post something similar and you beat me to it. Basically, Greyhounds are drama queens. The louder they scream about something, the less serious the matter is.

To be fair, the vet said that her ear looked pretty raw so I'll cut Winnie some slack over crying about it.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:22 AM (99eI0)

63 "That unaccomplished feeling you get when all you've done today is build a working C cross-compiler and half a package manager. And your day job..."

Mrs Eez gets that frequently. I have to walk her through all the different things she's done that day to get her to reluctantly admit that well, yes, she had not in fact wasted the entire day doing nothing.
eh. whachoogonnado?

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at September 10, 2026 06:23 AM (VyBeY)

64 A Ping is technically called an ICMP Echo Request, as specified in RFC 792.

Posted by: Wesley Crusher at September 10, 2026 06:23 AM (B0NCh)

65 Linda admitted she's never read much in the Western genre. But she likes hardboiled crime, so I told her she'll be right at home with sagebrush sagas; they are often tales of gangsters and of bringing them to justice, simply 100-150 years back. I'll get her to read Elmore Leonard's Hombre, at least one of Loren Estleman's Deputy Page Murdock series, and the short by Jack Schaefer, one of the best stories ever written, "Sergeant Houck."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:23 AM (wzUl9)

66 in other news, that x to xcancel redirector is working flawlessly, thanks everyone who recommended it!

I'm'a go get a cuppa coffee ...

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at September 10, 2026 06:26 AM (VyBeY)

67 On the topic of Westerns, I'd recommend the graphic novel "Ghost of the Badlands." Written by Razorfist and illustrated by George Alexopoulos.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:26 AM (99eI0)

68 I am not familiar with Anna North. Sounds like an entertaining writer. I have never read a feminist novel ( described as such). It sounds like you enjoy the book group and are a asset in the discussions.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026

***
North is new to me. This one is her third novel, and while she is a writer for the NYT, she did not let her probable leftist bias affect her storytelling. It's really only "feminist" in that it deals mostly with women and women's concerns -- but a good writer can make that interesting to men, or at least yours truly, and she did.

I try not to give away endings, but to talk about why a book is important or not, where it was strong and where it was weak, and how it relates to other novels. Outlawed, for instance, has faint resemblances to another Western with a heroine -- True Grit.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:28 AM (wzUl9)

69 in other news, that x to xcancel redirector is working flawlessly, thanks everyone who recommended it!

I'm'a go get a cuppa coffee ...
Posted by: sock_rat_eez at September 10, 2026

***
I thought xcancel had been taken down after a cease-and-desist order from X itself. I've installed nitter as an alternative, and it works the same way.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:29 AM (wzUl9)

70 NR Pax, feeding a raw beef neckbone twice a week will keep most dogs from ever needing a cleaning. No anesthesia required.

Posted by: Ben Had at September 10, 2026 06:30 AM (E0Et6)

71 This article might be of interest to the Horde. Over at Faith and Freedom, look for "What Early Christians Said Right Before They Were Baptized." (Can't post links here so search there.)

To sum up, baptism was viewed as renouncing allegiance to darkness and giving your loyalty to God.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:32 AM (99eI0)

72
NR Pax, feeding a raw beef neckbone twice a week will keep most dogs from ever needing a cleaning. No anesthesia required.
Posted by: Ben Had at September 10, 2026 06:30 AM (E0Et6)

We give out basted beef patellas. Bone Day is one of Borzoi rejoicing. Never have to do a dental.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 10, 2026 06:33 AM (eRlcH)

73 Thanks Ben Had. To be honest, greyhound teeth are famous for being bad. My vet was amazed that my boy Duncan had so many teeth despite being 12.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:33 AM (99eI0)

74 Bone Day is one of Borzoi rejoicing

That is a very cute image.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:34 AM (99eI0)

75 Have a good day everybody. I hope you all have a blessed day and know that you are a blessing to others, or as the lady on the classical music station says as her sign off, "Be good to yourself today, and be good to your neighbor ." ( In this case, be good to your fellow ASHQ posters. Except for trolls, we're all basically on the same conservative "team.") And if you're not going to work today, or are at home working, take some time off from the ASHQ board and get out for a walk if you can. It is good to be out in nature.

Maybe see you on the art thread.

And for the pray-ers: Keep on praying!

And on another note, I haven't seen "Madame Mayhem" on here recently. Maybe she's been on during the evening when I haven't been. Last time I saw her here she was mentioning that her college daughter was dealing with depression. Please pray for the complete healing of her daughter. Thanks.

So many young people have depression. Social media ...( insert rude word here ).

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 10, 2026 06:35 AM (rHgXV)

76 Hadrian, same here. All of my dogs have been rescues and it does wonders for them.

Posted by: Ben Had at September 10, 2026 06:37 AM (E0Et6)

77 from the ONT
tech story

173 Many years ago, we got an ISDN line installed at Jerry Pournelle's house, known as Chaos Manor. ISDN was the best you could get in a residential location before DSL and Cable modem service became common. We were at a complete loss as how to get it working. It behaved like a regular telephone line in some ways but you couldn't connect a ISDN TA and just use the dial-up functionality in Window 98 or NT 4. The lack of documentation was frustrating. Some aspect were bizarrely mysterious.

We called Pacific Bell, the local telco then. We got passed around and eventually ended up talking to then PacBell employee Scott Adams. There was much mutual fanboying.
Posted by: Epobirs at September 09, 2026 11:18 PM (/0z9K)

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 06:37 AM (odBC9)

78 Pournelle was a major-league tech writer as well as SF storyteller, often in combination with Larry Niven. They published their first collaborations in the days before the PC existed, and continued in the years before the existence of the 'Net. I'm sure JP brought LN along into using the word processor and other things as they appeared.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:42 AM (wzUl9)

79 also from the ONT
(TRex)

I will start considering potentially thinking about concern over re-naming the Gulf of America when people like the NY State legislature stop trying to re-name "mother" to "gestating parent" and "father" to "non-gestating parent."

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 06:42 AM (odBC9)

80

*hic*

Posted by: Hillary Clinton at September 10, 2026 06:43 AM (SRdv/)

81 I too have been reading westerns lately, first L'Amour and lately (and laconically) Elmore Leonard.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026 06:44 AM (EYqKn)

82 NR Pax, I am well acquainted with Greyhounds. I have rescued several.

Posted by: Ben Had at September 10, 2026 06:49 AM (E0Et6)

83 Wikipedia
Scott Adams

Dilbert gradually became more popular. It was syndicated in 100 newspapers in 1991 and 400 by 1994.

Adams attributed his success to his idea of including his email address in the panels, which resulted in feedback and suggestions from readers.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 06:50 AM (odBC9)

84 I too have been reading westerns lately, first L'Amour and lately (and laconically) Elmore Leonard.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026

***
Oddly, I like Leonard's Westerns better than I do some of his present-day crime stories. The dialog in his crime tales is so close to the way actual people speak that, paradoxically, it's sometimes hard for me to follow. I don't have that problem with his Westerns.

With L'Amour, I've only read Hondo (of course), his SF story The Haunted Mesa, and one or two others of his giant output. In some odd ways he reminds me of Heinlein -- that "truly American" spirit of independence and "can-do" attitude.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 06:50 AM (wzUl9)

85 82 I have rescued several.
Posted by: Ben Had

Best breed ever according to my dogs.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 06:51 AM (99eI0)

86 L'Amour's "Sackett" series starts more as adventure novels in Elizabethan England and follows a family tree until the west begins opening up, whereupon they become Indian fighters, lawmen, and ranchers. Good stuff.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026 06:56 AM (deJNz)

87 mornin yall

"Cheap electricity and free cooling. "

Won't those data centers contribute to global warming which will melt the ice pack and kill the polar bears?

Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026 06:57 AM (MWfyi)

88 The price of memory and nvme are still a scandal.

The price I paid for 64gb of ddr5 and two 4tb nvme are obscene, positively obscene.

The only upside is this is a company funded effort.

But still, obscene.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at September 10, 2026 07:00 AM (XV/Pl)

89 Heinlein vs. L'Amour: I have to wonder how a meeting between RAH's Lazarus Long and LLA's Hondo Lane would have gone. Probably rockily -- two alpha males contending in the same territory -- but it would be interesting to see them collaborate.

Lazarus, of course, was not born until about twenty-five years after Hondo Lane's time, but the Howards developed time travel, so why not.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:00 AM (wzUl9)

90 I think ee are worried on behalf of Finland, fd. So, reindeer.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026 07:00 AM (deJNz)

91 If I hd the skills I would make an ad blocker that accepts all the ads and tells the provider they were displayed, but then does not display them to the end user. Maybe it could display the ads in a duplicate virtual session that the user does not see while showing the user another cleaned up session.

Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026 07:01 AM (MWfyi)

92 L'Amour's "Sackett" series starts more as adventure novels in Elizabethan England and follows a family tree until the west begins opening up, whereupon they become Indian fighters, lawmen, and ranchers. Good stuff.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026

***
I'll look for the first in the series at the big library out in the suburbs, maybe today; it's close to by my barbershop.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:01 AM (wzUl9)

93 From the dawn of time computers and components ave become less expensive over time, so watching memory increase in price is weird.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026 07:02 AM (deJNz)

94 Memory was expensive back in the days of punchcards, COBOL, and mainframes. That, I understood, is why the programmers were instructed to code the year as only the last two digits -- thus leading to the rush to fix those programs as the year 2000 approached.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:04 AM (wzUl9)

95 "Iran used its new electro-optical missiles for the first time in an attempted attack on US warships on Wednesday,"

Oh no that sounds scary. They can't be jammed!

They all missed.

Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026 07:06 AM (MWfyi)

96 Wolfus, do you still exclusively read physical books? I admit to running Kindle on my phone and reading with it. I joined several libraries, including one in Miami, and borrow kindle versions of books from them.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026 07:06 AM (deJNz)

97 94 Memory was expensive back in the days of punchcards, COBOL, and mainframes. That, I understood, is why the programmers were instructed to code the year as only the last two digits -- thus leading to the rush to fix those programs as the year 2000 approached.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:04 AM (wzUl9)

That sounds bogus to me. (I don't have a source for that.)

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 07:07 AM (odBC9)

98 Light rain here now. I may need to wear a hat and rain jacket when I go out later.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:09 AM (wzUl9)

99 melt the ice pack and kill the polar bears?
Posted by: fd

The best way to save endangered species is to grow them on farms and make them taste like chicken.

Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026 07:09 AM (99eI0)

100 Won't those data centers contribute to global warming which will melt the ice pack and kill the polar bears?

Lets hope so. The Malthusians are always whining about lack of fresh water. As for the polar bears, what is their value add? They might not club baby seals, but surely eat them.

Posted by: Community Notes at September 10, 2026 07:09 AM (pUU4E)

101 Wikipedia agrees with you!
Y2K

The problem started because on both mainframe computers and later personal computers, memory was expensive, from as low as $10 per kilobyte to more than US $100 per kilobyte in 1975.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 07:09 AM (odBC9)

102 "That sounds bogus to me. (I don't have a source for that.)
Posted by: m"

That actually happened.

Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026 07:10 AM (MWfyi)

103 Memory was expensive back in the days of punchcards, COBOL, and mainframes. That, I understood, is why the programmers were instructed to code the year as only the last two digits -- thus leading to the rush to fix those programs as the year 2000 approached.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026
*
That sounds bogus to me. (I don't have a source for that.)
Posted by: m at September 10, 2026

***
I wasn't in the field then, so I don't know; I've only heard that story. You wouldn't think two characters, "19," would cost that much in memory. Of course the year was probably repeated many many times in each program, so maybe it added up?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:10 AM (wzUl9)

104 ... It was therefore very important for programmers to minimize usage.

Since computers only gained wide usage in the 20th century, programs could simply prefix "19" to the year of a date, allowing them to only store the last two digits of the year instead of four.

As space on disc and tape storage was also expensive, these strategies saved money by reducing the size of stored data files and databases in exchange for becoming unusable past the year 2000.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 07:11 AM (odBC9)

105 The best way to save endangered species is to grow them on farms and make them taste like chicken.
Posted by: NR Pax at September 10, 2026

***
Linda: "Cows are our friends."

Me: "Yes, when properly prepared and with a good side dish or two."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:12 AM (wzUl9)

106 "The problem started because on both mainframe computers and later personal computers, memory was expensive, from as low as $10 per kilobyte to more than US $100 per kilobyte in 1975.
Posted by: m"

It's like car manufacturers saving a few cents on a car part. Sure it looks good, works ok, and will only last 20 years, but who keeps a car that long? We will save millions on that ball joint.

Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026 07:13 AM (MWfyi)

107 wow

The first person known to publicly address this issue was Bob Bemer, who had noticed it in 1958 as a result of work on genealogical software.

He spent the next twenty years fruitlessly trying to raise awareness of the problem with programmers, IBM, the government of the United States and the International Organization for Standardization.

This included the recommendation that the COBOL picture clause should be used to specify four digit years for dates.

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 07:13 AM (odBC9)

108 Good morning morons

Unusually warm here overnight remained in the 70s

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 10, 2026 07:15 AM (RIvkX)

109 Ah, yes, tape storage. Those things we saw in the background in sets for U.N.C.L.E. and The Six Million Dollar Man.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:15 AM (wzUl9)

110 97 94 Memory was expensive back in the days of punchcards, COBOL, and mainframes. That, I understood, is why the programmers were instructed to code the year as only the last two digits -- thus leading to the rush to fix those programs as the year 2000 approached.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:04 AM (wzUl9)

That sounds bogus to me. (I don't have a source for that.)
Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 07:07 AM (odBC9)

New to me. Thanks, Wolfus!
(I remember Y2K; I did NOT know this cause.)

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 07:15 AM (odBC9)

111 Memory was expensive back in the days of punchcards, COBOL, and mainframes. That, I understood, is why the programmers were instructed to code the year as only the last two digits -- thus leading to the rush to fix those programs as the year 2000 approached.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

This is correct. Punch cards had a limit of 80 characters. Additionally the culture then and now, still uses the last two digits to indicate year when writing years out.

I don't think I have seen anyone write a check with the century.

In that day, programmers didn't think that the code they wrote in the '70s would survive into the new millennium.

The irony is that the savings of reducing the date storage size by 25% across millions of records in 1965 was blown away by the hundreds of billions later spent for Y2K

Posted by: Community Notes at September 10, 2026 07:17 AM (pUU4E)

112 Today is one of those strange days where Apple wants me to turn my VPN off on my phone before Apps can update. Most days its OK with VPN engaged, but not today.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026 07:17 AM (EYeDJ)

113 People will complain about memory prices and then buy a $2k iphone.

Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026 07:17 AM (MWfyi)

114 I have a suspicion that speed was also an issue with the year. There was a whole bunch of optimization performed that we wouldn’t even think about today because it would be pointless, that wasn’t pointless then.

If every instance of the field begins with 19, why put the 19 in? It slows sorting, it wastes memory, and it is unnecessarily duplicative.

We’re going to get a new computer system and a new database software next year anyway. Filling out the 19 when we have to won’t be a problem.

And then someone decided to use special values to signal conditions not related to the year: zeroing out the field to mean a loan has been paid off, or entering a particular impossibly low number to mean that the value is unknown…

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 10, 2026 07:18 AM (2Wzk3)

115 111 I don't think I have seen anyone write a check with the century.
Posted by: Community Notes at September 10, 2026 07:17 AM (pUU4E)

*raises hand*
Also my dad did. Like this: 14FEB1973

Posted by: m at September 10, 2026 07:20 AM (odBC9)

116 I had a computer store during Y2K. We gave away little clear plastic boxes with a couple of Mexican jumping beans in them. The boxes had a label on them ,"Y2K Bug". I still have one around here somewhere, but the bugs hatched and now are little dead moths.

Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026 07:20 AM (MWfyi)

117 Today is one of those strange days where Apple wants me to turn my VPN off on my phone before Apps can update. Most days its OK with VPN engaged, but not today.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 10, 2026 07:17 AM (EYeDJ)
-

The specific server your VPN was connected to at the time might be on Apple's "naughty" list. Did you try swicthing to a different VPN connection before shutting VPN down altogether?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 10, 2026 07:20 AM (D0X9e)

118 Wasn't just COBOL. RPG, at least where I was working, also used a lot of 2-digit years and we scrambled to get that stuff changed in time for the century shift. And we were still finding infrequently used routines that we missed a year or two later when they went fubar.

Y2K fizzled because a lot of people spent a lot of time fixing the year issue before it switched over to 2000.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 10, 2026 07:21 AM (q3u5l)

119 People will complain about memory prices and then buy a $2k iphone.
Posted by: fd at September 10, 2026

***
I balk at the idea of spending more than $50-60 for a phone. My current Samsung, which serves my modest needs (phone calls, texts, calculator, camera) and probably would do a lot more, cost about $35-40 at Target in '23.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 10, 2026 07:21 AM (wzUl9)

120 Disclaimer: Ping.

You're out of ammo?!
/tosses a few loaded clips of .30-06 your way/

Posted by: GWB at September 10, 2026 07:21 AM (kU0PQ)

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